How to Redeem Your Points

After that, you’ll be shown a different view of your total available points and anything pending. Select ‘Redeem Points’.

You’ll then be taken to the Merrill Lynch travel portal page where you can find more information about using their portal. Select redeem (‘Learn more’).

Finally, after selecting ‘Redeem’, you’re brought to the below page. For airfare, selecting ‘Redeem Now’ under the ‘Travel’ section with the nifty airplane.

Now, you’ll land on a page that looks like any other online travel agency (OTA) – just be sure to toggle ‘flights only’ – as opposed to ‘Flights + Hotels’.

How Redeeming Points Actually Works

Before looking at and comparing fares, here’s the most simple way of understanding how redeeming points through the Merrill+ travel portal actually works.

Points are worth 2 cents per dollar when tickets cost at or about $500. Anything significantly under $500, the points will be worth 1 cent per dollar.

For a flight that is $500 (or a bit less), you’re getting about 2 cents to the dollar.

For a flight that is $502, you’ll pay 25,000 points for that first $500 and then the additional points for the $2.

Where Can I Fly For (About $500)?

I wrote about subscribing to The Flight Deal on Twitter. The Flight Deal posts mistake fares – yes – but they also post really solid deals from all major hubs in the US. Europe appears to be the new standard for $500 or so roundtrip tickets.

Example of a less than $500 fare to Europe via The Flight Deal [Fare gone]

Starting Your Search

Two words: Google. Flights.

While Google Flights does not allow you to book travel – for most airlines – they do have an excellent calendar, map, and they allow you to add multiple destinations. Starting here will make it easier once you’ve found your desired flights. Just plug that information into the Merrill Lynch travel portal and you’ll be on your way.

For our first example, I looked at New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP). This route is served by Delta, United, American, Alitalia and a fifth freedom flight by Emirates.

In March, a roundtrip ticket is going for about $500.

The calendar view makes it easy to view prices.

For my selected dates (at less than $500) here are all the options:

I chose these options as they’re direct.

Let’s take a look at Merrill…

The red X indicates a transatlantic codeshare

The flights with the big red Xs are not operated by those carriers – they’re codeshare flights and operated direct by American, Delta (Delta) and American – respectively. But notice the Delta, United and Alitalia options are what Google Flights told us they would be.

If you scrolled over to the right you’d get more options, including American.

The flights are matched automatically with returns, but you do have some flexibility to mix and match departures and returns.

What about Emirates, which was slightly over $500?

On the lefthand side of the results you’ll see several filtering options: flight departure times, return times, non-stop, as well as airline.

$530 points, or 27,546 points.

So we’re $30 over $500 – and 2,546 points over 25,00. This seems like a bit over 1 cent per point! But the main take away is that the first $500 of the ticket value is equal to 25,000 points, or 2 cents per point.

Here’s what these fares (the $495 ones) look like for two people when going to check out:

Perfect!

But remember – because the first $500 are valued at 25,000 you can’t find a fare thats $1,000 and pay only 25,000 points! It has to be $500 per ticket – or passenger in this case.

What about different priced tickets?

Tickets around $400

From this, it would appear any ticket that costs $250 – $500 will require 25,000 points. However, this would not be how to maximize this card.

Tickets around $200

This $193.80 ticket is giving you a bit less than 1 cent per point. Not such a good value, eh?

Tickets around $100

This is the same as above: less than 1 cent per point.

What do we learn?

Minimum point redemptions using the Merrill Lynch portal start at 10,000 points.

How to Maximize on Flights Less than $500

Though not recommended and removes some “bang for your buck-ness”, here’s how you’d be better off maximize these points on tickets which are significantly less than $500.

Use your points as a statement credit.

Purchase the ticket with your Merrill+ card. Call the rewards conceirge on the back and have them use points as a credit towards the flight. These credits are valued at 1 cent per point.

So if you’re ticket is $80? That would be 8,000 points – as opposed to 10,000 (the minimum required) when booked through the Merrill Lynch travel portal.

F.A.Q.

I spent some time talking to the travel advisors asking questions about booking travel through their site. (If you have any other questions, feel free to hit up the comments and I’m happy to look into it for you!)

What is the cancellation policy when booking travel through the Merrill Lynch Travel rewards portal? Travelers can cancel anytime without penalty by the next day, no later than 11:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. (If you book Monday morning at 8:00 AM, you’ll still be able to cancel the next day at 10:30 PM EST, even though it’s more than 24 hours).

Are there any fees for booking over the phone? No, there is no phone booking fee.

Are one-ways flights eligible for the 25,000/$500 benefit? Yes, one-ways, roundtrips and open-jaws are all eligible.

How can you determine the fare class of the ticket? Can it be determined over the phone? No. Fare classes can only be determined after booking has been completed.

Can you book travel on Southwest and other low-cost carriers? Flights that don’t show up on the travel portal can be booked as follows:

Book the ticket – like Southwest – with your Merrill+ Bank of America Credit Card

Call the number on the back of the card and you can use your points as a statement credit at 1% (as opposed to 2%).

How many points would a $1,000 ticket cost? An $1,000 ticket would cost 75,000 points – the first $500 of the ticket is 25,000 points and the remaining $500 of the ticket is 1 penny per point – or an additional 50,000 points.

How do these fares compare to searching other OTAs? These fares are the same as Google Flights. In most cases, the fare on the Merrill Lynch travel portal should be the same.

Bottom line

As we’ve seen, you’ll get the most value out of these points on flights that cost about $500. Sometimes, though, you’ll need to redeem for a cheaper ticket. If that’s the case, be sure to use your Merrill+ card for the charge, and have them apply the points as a statement credit.

If you have any questions about redemptions, feel free to ask in the comments!